Greenfields Farmhouse

SY 29 NW WIDWORTHY

4/137 Greenfields Farmhouse -

• II Farmhouse. Probably mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, the lower end was rebuilt circa 1950. Colour-washed local stone and flint rubble with some cob in the rear wall; stone rubble stacks topped with C20 brick; interlocking tile roof, formerly thatch. Plan and development: originally this was a 3-room-and-through-passage plan farmhouse built down the hillslope and facing south. Uphill at the left (west) end is the inner room, the present kitchen. The projecting gable-end stack here was inserted circa 1950. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the site of the former passage. The downhill (east) end room was rebuilt circa 1950 on the site of the former passage and service end room. The roofspace is inaccessible and therefore it is not possible to determine the early structural history of the house. Nevertheless it is clear that the house began as some type of open hall house, maybe heated by an open hearth fire. The stack was probably inserted in the mid or late C16 and there is some evidence that a passage chamber jettied into the lower end of the hall flush with the front of the stack. The inner room end was probably floored about the same time. The hall was floored in the C17. The half beam in the inner room suggests that this room was once much smaller and enlarged to its present size in the C19. The former small and unheated inner room was probably a dairy or buttery. House is now 2 storeys. Exterior: irregular 3-window front of C20 casements mostly without glazing bars. The roof is gable-ended and steps down from the former hall to the rebuild lower end section. The former passage front doorway is blocked and now the only doorways are in the back wall. Interior: in the inner room/present kitchen the half beam is now a central crossbeam; it has a plain deep chamfer. The full height crosswall between inner room is oak large framing and includes a Tudor arch doorway. The hall fireplace is Beerstone ashlar with oak lintel and chamfered surround; part is now lined with brick. There is no exposed crossbeam in this room. Although the roofspace is inaccessible a side-pegged jointed cruck is exposed over the hall.

Listing NGR: SY2267298474